Discovering Gems in My Old Bedroom

After two weeks of having an aunt and uncle visit and having them sleep in the larger bedroom downstairs, I have moved back into that bedroom on their departure. This is in fact my old bedroom. It has a tv in it and the internet modem is also here (meaning the best wifi spot in the house). I might never leave.

Upon moving my few possessions into the bedroom again I discovered some old gems that I'd forgotten and left behind.

First, my old Hello Kitty clock:

You may wonder why the two Hello Kitty dolls set into the face of the clock aren't facing outward, well that is because they rotate and a song plays every hour on the hour. That can be annoying in your bedroom. Hence, they have long been deactivated. Mid-spin.

Then, I discovered these old glasses of mine tucked in a drawer in the closet - they are so old the frames don't really fit my face (they might have been from when I was 12)! Plastic pink transclucent frames. Oh man, I was such a stylin' kid.

Comedy.

The Up Series

I just finished watching 56 Up, the British documentary series by Michael Apted which has been ongoing since 1964. Everytime they describe the premise with the quote "Give me a child until he is 7, and I will give you the man", on the assumption that the experiences one goes through by the time they are 7 are the ones that set them towards the people that they will be. I think the intent of the original series was to take one step beyond this and draw some conclusions on the class system in Britain, and how some of the more or less privileged children had no future but the exact one that they had been born into.  They take 4 kids (3 girls and one boy) from the London East End to represent the poor and 3 really posh boys who sing everyday in class in Latin to represent the ultra rich and privileged. Then they get a mix of those in between hailing from different parts of the country. The original series was meant to be a one-off, but 7 years later someone decided they would revisit these children at 14 (at a super awkward age for them all!) and then 7 years later someone else decided let's do it again at 21, and after that Michael Apted, who at first was a junior casting assistant or something in 1964 and became a accomplished director as time went on, decided to keep revisiting these people every 7 years. This week, they got to 56. Various members of the 14 children have decided to participate or not participate throughout the years, and this time was the first time where they got 13 out of the 14 to participate again (the last one is one of the posh boys who for reasons unknown refused to participate after 21, and has threatened to sue the producers on their continued use of his image - he didn't make it into Oxford/Cambridge as was expected of him, who knows if that is why). To be fair to the dropout, almost all of the participants have objected to the way their lives are editted in the programs, since 15 minutes to recap 56 years of one's life isn't really enough, is it. 

Anyways, I cannot do the explanation of the program the justice that a good ol' wikipedia page can do, so here is the link.

I actually first saw this program on American television, and not from moving to the UK as you might expect. It must have been 42 up (broadcast 1999) that caught my eye, since as I've explained to most of you, my awareness of Western television/film and general popular culture (besides Full House, Saved by the Bell, Jem and the Holograms, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, along with every book written under the sun) was non-existent before 1994 (despite having lived in Canada since 1987).  I think I caught it on television randomly and was captivated - who were these people, how had their lives panned out compared to what they aspired to as children, and did they fulfill the expectations based on class that the original producers clearly intended them to demonstrate?

Back in the days where not everything was available via the internet, I struggled to get a hold of the earlier editions, but eventually I had them all and watched every single one of them, just as spellbound, if not even more so, by these people and their lives. Some have enduring marriages, some never find anyone to share their life with. Some say they don't want children at 28, and then at 35 have 3. Some indicate they do want a family all throughout the programs, and then are single at 35, you give up hope for them as they are getting on, and then at 42 they have gotten married. You think, well that's nice, he found someone, but he and his wife are now in their 40's so I guess kids are out for them, and at 49 they have two young boys. One becomes homeless and endures psychological problems - ironically one of the most precocious, outgoing, and sunny of the 7 year olds. Their hardships make me cry. Their perspectives are eye-opening on how we each view our lives - a barrister and QC, talked a lot about aspirations in politics throughout the earlier editions - this has never come to fruition and he reveals that two of his childhood friends are Ministers in the current government - and he says that he can't help but feel a bit of a failure, and looks down with regret. It's strange to watch him, clearly succesful in his profession and with a happy family, say that and then watch a snippet on one of the other participants who have struggled all their lives, had loved ones pass away, and are on long term disability social benefits.

Personal stories are always what gets me to care about something - history, politics, religion, archaeology, literature, art, whatever the topic, if you don't tell it to me with some personal perspective with it, I won't care. But if you tell me about the people behind it, I'm fully engaged. They don't even have to be real people. It's why I only read fiction, and why I bawled my eyes out at the end of the Time Travellers' Wife - which is about a made-up person who involuntarily travels through time, for god's sake. I wanted things to work out for Henry DeTamble, goddamnit!

I am surprised by how few of the people I know in the UK have heard of this program, or had watched it (none of you, by my last random survey). I think it's interesting and worth the time just by virtue of the fact that in the present world of reality television and instant gratification, a program like this would never be commissioned - wait every 7 years for the fruits of your labour? No way Jose!

p.s. If they ever come out with a box set, Keith, you're set for my Christmas prezzie.

Pottery Painting

Depite having no creativity whatsoever, I love pottery painting. It was what I made all my friends do on my hen do, along with afternoon tea. It was a very civilized affair.

One of the first things that my sister organised for her and my niece and nephew to do was to go pottery painting. Initially it was just going to be a girl thing, but Ethan insisted that he wanted to participate, only to finish in 10 minutes while the girls were still umming and awwing about what paint colours to choose.

My niece Kaylie painted a box, even though her parents say she already has about a dozen boxes in her room for her odds and sods. I painted a dish, even though I have about a dozen dishes that I painted at pottery painting. This dish has the express purpose of being Keith's junk dish, as he likes to fish everything out of his pockets when he gets home and toss them on a desk. Putting them in a dish makes the desk look so much tidier!!

Here is my masterpiece, and a picture of my niece and I painting (censored as my sister has a weird thing about her kids' photos being online - I also put a lightning bolt across my sister's face for extra measure)

The colours come out much darker after they've been fired in the kiln, so it's always a surprise what it ends up looking like. Can't wait to pick it up next Sunday!

I've already picked out what I'll paint next - a ladle rester dish thingie. Then a mug with a slot at the bottom for biscuits. Then some chip and dip platter/bowls. This place is going to suck up all my money.

Richmond Night Market

Went to the night market tonight! Haven't been in at least 3 years - it's an annual market that gets set up over the summer months and opens on weekend evenings. Originally just one row of stalls in an empty parking lot selling mostly junk (I think I bought 2 mechanical pencils from there in its first year), it has evolved to become more of a food market with all sorts of street food, mostly of the Asian (and by Asian I mean South-East Asia/Oriental) variety.

Stef wanted to go tonight so we braved the crowds by going early-ish and being very methodical in our food search - first we went up and down the 3 aisles to fully peruse the offerings before choosing what to use our precious stomach space on. In the end we settled on the following:

Some Chinese dimsum - curry fishballs for Stef (not pictured), pork siu mai for me:

We then moved on to a new experience for me - the Hurricane Potato. Apparently this was introduced last year and this year multiple stalls were copying it. Rightly so, it is genius. The Hurricane Potato is a whole potato sliced thinly into a corkscrew, slid onto a skewer, and then deep-fried. Can't picure it? Not to worry! I have a video, complete with Hurricane Potato man chanting about the merits of his potato throughout:

 It is then dipped into ketchup or mayo or a variety of flavoured powders. They took it to a whole other level this year by sticking a hot dog in the middle of the potato, so of course we had to try that. Stef kept hers simple with ketchup topping and I ordered sour cream and onion flavoured topping on mine (in hindsight, a slight mistake, because it just made the potato taste a bit too much like chips/crisps). This is a winner - I will definitely have it again:

Last but not least, I wanted to try a okonomiyaki (japanese octopus pancake) - potato, cabbage, and octopus pan fried and topped with shaved dried onions, mayo and a special sauce - a thicker and sweeter worcestershire sauce.

All to be washed down with a nice mango drink - mine was mango with tapioca and coconut milk. We queued at least 25 minutes for these bad boys, all the while commenting on the stall's production process and lamenting that we could do it faster and better:

But don't forget, the original intent of the night market was to sell junk products. So of course I had to pay $2 for a comedy eye mask. Look! I have pretty anime eyes!

p.s. did you notice the girl behind hurricane potato man had a fake hurricane potato skewer in her hair? if not go back and look again. also comedy.

Bad driver

I really should not be allowed to drive!! I am sooo out of practice and I never had any spatial ability anyway (yea that curb is way far away...CRUNCH), but driving everyday and everywhere to do audits for years helped me get to a passable skill level, and I was confident. Now, I am a mess, yet I slide back into the comfort and alertness that I used to employ, resulting in some near disasters already.

I have already managed to scratch both cars - mine and my parents. Pulling into the garage, thought i had plenty of space between my front left bumper and the parked car's rear right bumper. Nope. scraaaaaaaaaaaaatch. on both cars. don't care about mine, i own that car so no guilt necessary, but not so nice on my mom and dad's car. Oops.

Then today I had a mild panic when I started the car up, looked at the dashboard, and was faced with this:

There's no GAS! THERE'S NO GAS!!! PANIC!!!! I had noticed the tank was getting close to empty over the past week, and each time just thought - I better gas up soon, and then neglected to do it on account of sheer laziness. And I'll admit it - I was a little afraid of the gas station. I've forgotten how most things work and feel a bit like a fool. Even though it is full service in Richmond (you can't fill it yourself, strange by-law in our suburb) I'd still put it off. And now it was on the E line! Noooooooooooooo. I'd never experienced this before because anal retentive me in the past would never risk it getting that low. I don't even ever remember seeing this orange light go on - I'd fill it back up well before this point each time. But I fought the panic and told myself they always leave a bit of leeway so you don't get stuck, and then used my new Gas Buddy app (thanks Elaine!) to find the nearest gas station, and set off. Made it, and was relieved that I could take this picture aftewards:

All full. yay. No idea what that other light is about. Is the car telling me I have a ball in my lap? Whatever. I'll ignore that one.

Baby steps, May, baby steps. Next, I will work up the nerve to fill up outside of Richmond and self-serve. You can do it May, you used to do it all the time.

My Cute Grandma and My Weird Lunch

I left London 9 days ago and have eaten out for every single meal since. That has got to be a record for eating out when not on holiday!! Was really starting to feel icky so today started my self-imposed diet. Thie involved me saying to my Grandma that I needed to buy spinach, carrots, and mushrooms, which were going to be my base vegetables for daily salads for lunch. Was then going to top that off with grilled chicken and find some balsamic vinegar to toss over all of it. I just wanted dear Grandma to tell me which of the supermarkets were the best so I wouldn't get ripped off due to my lack of local supermarket knowledge (compounded by the fact that I never cooked therefore rarely grocery shopped in Vancouver even when I lived here).

So this afternoon Grandma trotted me over to the independent produce shop over the road. Chinese run of course. I bought spinach (unwashed and all still attached in a bunch) a giant carrot, vine tomatoes, and celery. The celery was initially in a whole bunch but my grandma made the grocers halve it for me - then she tried to take the piss and ask if we could rip off just a few sticks, but I stepped in, thanked them for halving it in the first place, and said half was fine. No chicken in the shop and grandma refused to let me go to the Marketplace IGA to buy some, so we bought some frozen sea bass, (which again my grandma tried to make them halve, but they were four pieces in a vacuum sealed bag so I had to shush her again).

Back home, grandma started washing the spinach (and yes I did say I would do it myself) but then Keith messages me on skype so I told grandma I was just having a quick chat and would be back in to cut up all the vegetables for my salad. Halfway through the conversation I ws summoned away from the computer to the kitchen where I found my her blanching ALL of the spinach. I was like "what are you doing silly, I was going to eat just some of that and also put it raw into my salad!" but of course that was too weird a concept for her, so cook it she would and don't you try to stop her. So in the end my lunch looked like this:

Strange but surprisingly quite tasty. Thanks Grandma!!!

gvb.B.

All over the world, they are a problemo

Whether you call them shopping carts or buggies, whether you're buying scrapbooking material at Target or groceries at Tesco, whether you call the level above the one that is on solid earth the 1st floor or the 2nd floor, and whether you are in North America or the UK, we all know that you gotsta get your cart upstairs to where the goods are at in a megastore.

It's just freakin' hilarious the devices that have become normal to make it easiest to do so. Elevators are so passe, I guess. We need crazy cart escalators, or we need angled travelators that magnetically lock the wheels of your cart onto the travelator, preventing punk kids from creating their own free roller coaster. Behold:

In North America:

And in the UK:

which is better, in your opinion?